Rassie Erasmus backs Jasper Wiese as Springboks' first choice eighth man

The 24-year-old was South Africa's best performer against Los Pumas on Saturday as they claimed a narrow 17-10 victory in Buenos Aires.

It was a statement effort from Hanekom, who has had to remain patient for more game time after making his Test debut in 2024.

Injury wiped out his chances of making an international appearance in 2025, but he did feature in the Nations Championship last month, playing 45 minutes in the win over England.

The loose forward has been a highly regarded talent since breaking into the Bulls first team, but he has not done enough to displace Wiese, according to Erasmus.

While the head coach likes to rotate his Springboks team, it suggests that number eight is not a position he is willing to speculate on when they face the All Blacks in Johannesburg.

"It doesn't open up, Jasper Wiese is clearly the number one number eight," Erasmus said.

While the Boks boss is always open and honest, it is rare that he is quite that blunt, but it shows what a crucial cog Wiese has become.

Hanekom has now shown his Test match credentials, however, and could well take a spot on the bench for the All Blacks series as a result.

"Cameron has now really played well against an Argentinian team that has knocked us over a few times, so it's lekka to have another option there," Erasmus said.

"I thought Elrigh [Louw] did well at stages. Obviously, we have Pieter-Steph [du Toit], Paul de Villiers and Siya [Kolisi] is coming back. Andre [Esterhuizen] can play at eight and Marco's [van Staden] played at eight for us, so it's lekka to have those options.

"We'll try and pick the 23 that we think can beat New Zealand but Cameron is definitely starting to settle nicely in the team, he's starting to be calm in understanding what we're trying to do, so I think he's getting better every game."

Given the challenges of the Argentina clash and Rugby's Greatest Rivalry tour, Erasmus initially named a large squad and he insists that it won't be cut down now that the All Blacks series is on the horizon.

"We're not going to trim the squad, the squad is 41, 15 guys there and 26 here [in Argentina]. We've got 15 guys at home already preparing for that, although I'm not saying they're going to start definitely or be in the match-day 23, we just had to get a lot of players through some match fitness.

"In the next two weeks we will have to look at our injuries and then we will pick the team that we hope can try and beat New Zealand in the first Test match.

"New Zealand are touring with 44, so nobody has to get cut."

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